Supreme Court “extremely unhappy” at Bombay HC not providing order copies

In an order passed on October 24 this year, the Supreme Court of India has expressed great displeasure at Bombay High Court for failing to provide parties with copies of orders passed by the High Court..A Bench of Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice AK Goel was hearing an appeal against a decision of the High Court which was rendered on August 8 by RP Sondurbaldota J..The appellant, M/S Gada Properties, sought permission to file the SLP without a copy of the this judgment. The Bench allowed the same while making some strong observations..The October 24 order reads,.“We are extremely unhappy that the Bombay High Court is repeatedly passing orders without making a copy thereof available to the parties. We request the Hon’ble the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court to look into the matter and consider whether something can be done..In this case, the order was passed by the High Court on 8th August, 2016 and even 2 and ½ months later a copy of the order is not available. This raises a serious issue of access to justice.”.The court also issued notice in the matter..Interestingly, the Bombay High Court, in its judgment, had slammed the petitioner/ appellant for delay tactics stating the following:.“In all the above circumstances, it is abundantly clear that the petitioner has been, since the date of service of notices upon him, resorting to either the Court proceedings or the proceedings for regularisation in order to delay the action on the part of respondent no.1 of removal of unauthorised construction….. The respondent had in fact patiently waited for eight long years for the petitioner to produce the necessary documents. Hence, the petitioner is dismissed with costs.”.Read the order of Supreme Court and judgment of Bombay High Court below.